Ogilvy Malaysia consolidates agencies to create ‘holistic’ operation

WPP has consolidated all its Ogilvy & Mather agencies in Malaysia as part of a continuation of the holding company’s global ‘horizontality’ model.

The Kuala Lumpur-based operation has brought its creative, public relations and social media agencies under the unified Ogilvy Malaysia umbrella in a bid to bring a more “holistic” approach to its clients.

A similar restructure is also understood to have taken place at Ogilvy Shanghai.

The agency overhaul comes six months after Ogilvy moved its former chief marketing officer, David Mayo, to Malaysia to act as the agency’s new CEO.

As part of the restructure, Ogilvy has added an ‘Influence’ division to its public relations operation, which will be responsible for handling influencer and content marketing.

The 17-strong ‘PR and Influence’ team will work alongside the social and creative divisions in what Ogilvy is touting as a “modern, inclusive and integrated approach to PR”.

The team is being led by Sunita Kanapathy and newly-appointed lawyer-turned-PR man Dane Barr, who has been handed the title of director.

Before joining Ogilvy, Barr was a group account director at Geometry KL. Prior to then, he worked as a barrister in Northern Ireland.

Bar: ‘We are all multi-platform.’

Speaking to Mumbrella, he said: “It’s a more holistic way of working together. Previously the agencies worked in silos, but there’s a lot of work we can do together. Bringing in PR is part of the direction we are going towards: one Ogilvy. We are all multi-platform.”

Mayo added in a press statement: “Great stories happen to those who can tell them, and Dane will elevate words into action through the power of influence. We welcome him to the team where he will deliver the agency’s commitment within key accounts while working with Sunita to strengthen our offerings in PR and Influence.”

Currently Ogilvy Malaysia has around 80 people and works with clients such as Tiger Beer, Milo, Guinness, Canon, Nestle and UBS.

Its creative department is currently being led by creative directors Jarrold Reginald and Pashyn Sethna.